


Unflirty

by nah1210



Category: Persona 5, Persona 5 Royal, Persona Series
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Love Confessions, Mutual Pining, P5R Christmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:01:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23767351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nah1210/pseuds/nah1210
Summary: Amamiya Ren is a flirt and would not stop teasing Makoto.And she absolutely hated that.
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Niijima Makoto, Kurusu Akira/Niijima Makoto, Niijima Makoto/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 3
Kudos: 86





	Unflirty

"I’m game if you are.” Ren had a playful smirk on his lips.

_'What—Not this again.'_

Makoto let out an uncomfortable giggle. “Don’t be ridiculous. I couldn’t even begin to think of marriage at this point in life."

She never really understood why Ren still insisted on showering her with little flirtations here and there, sometimes even seeming more like a host than Tsukasa, the real life host who made an unfortunate appearance into Eiko’s life. She’s made it obvious to Ren before that she had no interest in engaging in this sort of meaningless conversation. 

And yet, he still made his little quips, a ghost of a smirk on his face at any hint of her getting flustered or the sight of a pink heat rushing to her face. 

Was he overcompensating because she called him disheveled before? He did look a little distraught at the comment and stopped talking to her for weeks before he came back with a sense of charm and charisma that was almost supernatural and hard to explain.

'I mean, he had always been…attractive.’ she thought wistfully. Ren was taller than most guys she knew and had a head of tousled dark hair that always looked too perfectly messed up rather than the untended bed head that it actually was. Behind the simple faux glasses that he wore as his mask in real life to hide his true nature, were a pair of sharp grey eyes that betrayed a deeper emotion that he let on with his carefree body language. He had a face that was pleasant to look at—scratch that—he was definitely good looking and he knew it, using it to his advantage to charm people and sometimes even the demonic shadows that they faced during their excursions in the metaverse.

The rumors about him being a delinquent at school sometimes were interspersed with girls secretly talking about how _I wish the bad boy would sweep me off my feet_ or _If you looked a little closer, he's **really** good looking_. She knew he paid them no mind and he definitely didn’t need any sort of reassurance of what he is, positive or negative, from anyone.

However, she knew that Eiko wouldn’t be convinced otherwise that Makoto's fake boyfriend was not up to par with her beloved Tsukasa unless Ren did something to improve his outward image. She knew that the timid and polite transfer student front he often put up was an act but didn’t know how to convince Eiko at the time, leading her to make that throwaway statement to Ren about being disheveled after.

She was scared that he was going to outright stop talking to her at all beyond phantom thief business after that. She remembered the days that her hands hovered over the send button on a message she painstakingly crafted to tell him that she didn’t mean anything by it only to press delete at the end, her nerves getting the better of her.

But a week or two after, there he was, casually waiting for her outside of the school gates on a Sunday, knowing that she often made this trip to sort out her student council duties without the hustle and bustle of other students. He stood up a little more confidently, smiled a little more playfully, displaying his confidence in a way that he never did beyond his alter-ego as Joker in the metaverse. Of course, all of these sides of him were still him, but then he seemingly felt even more like himself—if that even made any sense.

She feared that she had delivered Ren a challenge that turned him from the playful flirt that he already was into a full blown casanova. She didn’t quite know how to deal with this new development.

He almost made her play along with his teasing then but she had steeled herself. She had more composure than that to play into his wiles, although she was aware that she might turn into pliant putty in his hands had he made any attempts to go further than simple flirting. She knew that ultimately their arrangement was to help Eiko and not about impressing herself.

Thankfully, Ren was always good about letting go when his 100th attempt to flirt with her fell short. Oddly enough, he had a rather disappointed look on his face at that moment.

“What?”

“Makoto, I am not just flirting with you right now just for fun.”

_'Wait—what did he mean by that?’_ Was he really insinuating what she thought he was? He had stated enjoying being her boyfriend now and then, almost casually hinting that he actually wanted their fake relationship to be real. Didn’t revealing that now feel like really bad timing though? She had just spilled her guts out about her father before. Surely he wasn’t following up such a heavy handed conversation with an attempt to ask her out, right?

However, whatever possible motivation that she had cooked up in her head for those words unfortunately died with his next sentence. She internally hissed at the thought. What was so unfortunate about the reassurance that his flirtations were not romantic?

“Tsukasa had already noticed at the beginning that we were just pretending to be dating. At the very least, we need to make it look less suspicious and actually act like a couple, right?”

She bit her lip and looked away. She couldn’t argue with his logic there. She understood but…

“Playing along with my flirting will definitely help with that. Just think of it as an amusing past time that doesn’t really mean much and enjoy it a little." he chided.

That was the thing about flirting wasn’t it? That in actuality, it didn’t really mean much. That there was no real emotion behind the flirting or the little compliments. No promise in conjectures about furthering relationships.

No significance behind Ren’s teasing of her. 

“I don’t like saying things that don’t have any meaning behind them. If I’m going to flirt, I would like to actually flirt with feelings, rather than just for the sake of amusement.” she said curtly, averting her eyes away from him and brought a hand up to her face to futilely push her side bangs behind her ear, a nervous tick she had. She didn’t mean to have such an edge to her tone but she feared that any weakness she divulged now would just clue Ren in on the true reasoning why she wasn’t willing to let up her stance on flirting.

Ren didn’t say anything as he further leaned back against the student council table, folding his arms in the process, still looking at her with those steely gray eyes of his. After a few seconds of silence of her not willing to give in and him not wanting to let it go, he gave out an exasperated sigh. “God, Mako…could you for one second just be less unflirty?” he uttered with a sad chuckle as he ran a hand through his hair.

Unflirty…didn’t Eiko say that she would flunk a test of love? Is flirting a required subsection she needed to master in order to pass this so-called test? Was romance really that empty? 

She bit her lip and further hung her head so that Ren wouldn’t be able to see that he touched a sore spot for her. However, this is Ren that we are talking about. Knowing him and his uncanny ability to introspect by just even paying a tiny bit of attention, this shift in mood wasn’t going to get past him.

“Makoto, I’m sorry. I clearly wasn’t being thoughtful when I said that.” he said, sounding sincerely regretful of the words he said previously. He looked down at the floor, a hand fussing with his bangs that had formed a curtain over his eyes, effectively hiding the emotions on his face. She had seen him do this only a handful of times, sometimes on purpose, but this time his hands were moving in an uncollected manner that betrayed his distress at the current situation.

“It’s okay….” She huffed herself out of her stupor and continued “speaking about pretending to be my boyfriend…could you keep at it a little longer? That’s the best method that I could come up with on keeping tabs on Eiko and Tsukasa for now.”

He stopped fidgeting with his bangs and put his hands back into his pockets and straightened into his normal slightly slouched position. He had sensed her impatience at wanting to move on past their prior discussion. “Of course."

She didn’t want to seem ungrateful about him listening to her ramble about her past regarding her father before they started their discourse about flirting—“At any rate, thanks for listening today…”—but she also felt like the conversation was starting to take an emotional toll on her so she better end it now—“…I’ll let you know if anything urgent comes up.” She quickly made a show of getting her bag cleaned up, hinting at him to also start moving himself.

He wasted no time on retreating, muttering a short “See you” as he swiftly walked to the door. However, as he stood there, she caught him intently gazing at her with a look in his eyes, almost as if he was searching for something. She opens her mouth to ask him if he had left something but in a blink of an eye, he was gone, the door closed lightly enough to only sound out a quiet click.

_'Whatever, that probably meant nothing’_. She picked up a stray work book and put into her bag.

_'Sometimes, I just don’t even know what’s going through his head.’_ As she started grabbing at the stray stationary on the table, her eyes fell on her favorite fountain pen.

_“I found this in the general store in Shinjuku and couldn’t help think of you so I thought it would be nice to buy it for you.” Ren had said when he had given it to her a few weeks back, surprising her. “Really Ren? Do you always buy gifts for your friends for no reason?” she had asked playfully, trying to gauge the intention behind this sudden generosity. “Just think of it as a token of appreciation for wrangling the thieves when they get a little unruly. Things get moving along and I get to keep my title as the cool team dad." He laughed as he effortlessly dodged her punch directed at his side for this quip, the sound a pleasant ring to her ears._

But this wasn’t the only gift that he had given her. A flower basket decorated her desk back in her room. A bottle of obviously expensive perfume with a name she couldn’t pronounce sat on her dresser. “I got it from a raffle in the Shibuya underground mall and I really didn’t know what to do with it.’ he said as an excuse when he gave it to her.

And yet.

There were also the rumors she heard of him with the other honor student. In fact, when the team stumbled upon her by accident, it was pretty clear that she and Ren were close. Not to mention that the gymnast was gorgeous. She had also already met Hifumi who was both smart and prettier than her and Ren frequently met up with her to play Shogi. There was also the other phantom thieves like Ann, who was a model and more bubbly than she could ever be. Haru, who was sweet and obviously making eyes at Ren when he gave her any attention. Futaba, who clearly had a crush of her own towards Ren and he also obviously cared for her.

He didn’t seem to be lacking at all in the amount of women he spent time with.

But it wasn’t really them that bothered her. She wasn’t that insecure. No. It was him. And how he acted around them.

He had an easy manner with every one of them, treating each girl as if he was courting them. An easy compliment and playful smile were always at the edge of his lips and he was always ready to give light touches here and there that, maybe, just maybe, mean something more than just a means to comfort. A tease and coquettish statement later, the girl on the receiving end will never fail to find themselves in a flustered mess at the hands of Joker.

Her own thoughts slowly darted to the memory of his fingertips that sometimes, _accidentally_ , brush against her skin and how it would send a shiver down her spine each time. Sometimes he let his hands linger a little longer than for it to be an accident, his eyes obviously gazing at her for a reaction. She blinked once or twice at the sudden recollection of that sensation and the quiet heat in his gaze of those moments, struggling to lock those memories in a hidden chest in some crumbling palace of her mind.

She was reading too much into this again. As she always did. Perhaps he was right about just enjoying his flirting but it didn’t do any good to silence the questions or the concerns that she had pent up in her mind. 

_'He flirts with every other girl and I am not an exception. In fact, I am not even the best choice.’_

Her hands drop whatever they were doing as she balled them into fists. She felt a familiar pain in her chest when the thought flitted through her mind, causing her right hand to clutch against the place where her heart lay beating. She was already exceedingly aware of this fact and yet it felt like somebody twisted the existing dagger in her heart _just a little more_ to torment her, each time.

* * *

With all the commotion that was the aftermath of the death of Haru’s father and the sudden deal with Akechi that the phantom thieves were forced to make when he confronted them during the school festival, she didn’t really have any time to dwell on her issue with Ren. So far, most of their conversations revolved around _‘Hey, how is Haru? Is she acting okay?’_ or _‘Is Ryuji doing alright? Can you check in on him to make sure he doesn’t do anything reckless?’_ or _‘What’s our next step? and ‘We need to strategize a plan for Akechi.’_

The need to meticulously plan for Akechi’s betrayal led her to meeting Ren more than usual considering how their last conversation went but thankfully he didn’t bring it up, focusing on the business that needs to be done. 

The issue with her sister's palace was weighing heavily on her mind but she kept that at bay, understanding that she will cross the bridge of changing her sister’s heart when she gets there. On top of that, the knowledge that Akechi was planning to personally deliver the death blow to Ren himself was almost a tipping point on bringing the emotional burden on her head and her heart into a crescendo that was threatening to swallow her whole. She was having difficulty trying to grasp that what was possibly awaiting them was Ren’s impending death, despite his constant reminders that _no, we’re going to make it through this, I know you Makoto and what you’re capable of_ , his hands squeezing her own until it hurt her after they walked through the plan for the 100th time. The quiver in his voice was more telling of the intention of his words to not only soothe her but himself. The sensation of his touch felt like almost nothing because she was just so _afraid_. And the problem was that she wasn’t sure if she was truly afraid that he was going to die or if it was that he was going to die before she could ever tell him how she felt about him and his remarks or the feeling of his hands against her skin—

She violently shoved her feelings and thoughts back into the miserable cognitive hole they crawled out of. These feelings were selfish in contrast to everything that was happening right now. If she wanted Ren to live, she better suck it up and act as the trusted and reliable second-in-command just as he is doing his hardest to be the unmoving rock of the team.

A call from a desperate Eiko who was nervously pleading for Makoto to meet with her weirdly felt like a long needed reprieve in all of the chaos that was currently happening in her life. Ren himself sounded a little eager over the phone when she told him that she needed his help again. Perhaps, despite the image of an unflappable stoic leader he presented for all of them, he too, needed a break.

The brief meeting with Eiko in Big Bang Burger had resulted in the discovery of an obvious prediction come true. Tsukasa was already starting to shed his skin of the perfect host boyfriend and revealing himself to be the predator of vulnerable women that Makoto had long figured him to be. Another plan had hatched in her mind on how to deal with this new development of Eiko’s predicament. 

And that’s how she ended up in a bar with Ren in Shinjuku with the memory of Eiko crying off and holding her face that was stinging with a slap that Makoto delivered herself.

“I couldn’t believe that I hit one of my friends…” she muttered under her breath, still in disbelief over what had occurred. She swirled her mocktail in attempt to calm her nerves. She didn’t even know bars in Shinjuku would serve teenagers like this. In fact, how did she even get here in the first place? Did Ren just coincidentally spot a “HIGH SCHOOLERS ALLOWED" sign on some random bar when he dragged her away from the scene they had caused?

“That was the right move” Ren gently replied as if knowing that she was in an emotional high and he needed to thread carefully. He kept his hands to himself this time and didn’t make any unwarranted moves on her, understanding that doing so might end up with him with a stinging mark the size of her hand on his face, too.

“Really? I hope so…You know, I have a bad habit of acting in the moment. I can’t help but get swept in emotion. That’s why I always have to take extra care to keep myself composed. My father was the same way...” Ren nodded supportively.

“That’s not the proper way to act though. There’s no telling of what would have happened if you hadn’t stepped in.” she continued, rubbing her arms as she started to feel the tinge of regret flood her. She knew what she did with Tsukasa was dangerous, actually stupid dangerous and she was really glad that Ren was there with her. Because, had things gone wrong, she might have seen herself sucked into a similar situation like the one with Kaneshiro, a situation that the phantom thieves would currently neither have the time or resource to spare to save her from. She shook her head at the thought. She needed to focus on something else.

She finally took in the surroundings of the bar that she was in. Bright neon decorative lights adorned the walls and alcohol lined up the shelf behind Lala-chan who was tending to some of the other customers. There was only a quiet hum of chatter in the bar considering that it wasn’t quite peak time of the day for people to be getting drinks. For a place that was meant to invoke a reaction with its loud decorations and garrish colors, it felt oddly calming to her in contrast to the neutral palette of the environments that she would usually spend her time in.

“That aside, this place is…interesting. How did you ever find somewhere like this. You know so much...”

“I had to meet up with Ohya here, you know, the journalist?” he answered honestly, rubbing the back of his neck. Another woman to add to his repertoire of confidants. “I also work here part time on occasion.” 

_'God Ren, what do you not do?’_ How did he manage to accumulate a string of skills and experience in such a short amount of time that he had spent in Tokyo? He was actually younger than her and still a high schooler to boot. She didn’t know if he was just incredibly lucky or if he was actually a protagonist of some visual novel. 

She took a sip at her drink, knowing that she needed to talk about the worries that had been stewing in her head ever since their previous conversation in the student council room. She carefully untangled her mess of thoughts into discernible words, hoping that he wouldn’t just up and leave from annoyance of what she had to say. 

“Honestly, spending time with you and getting to know Eiko has given me a lot to think about…” she said, the words coming out almost as soft as a whisper. 

“There’s so much you can miss by living with your head between the pages of a book. I though I knew how the world worked…but the more time I spent time with you guys, the more I realized how naive I was…I see now that there are some things I need other people to teach me…”

“...Do you remember how Eiko said I would flunk a test about love?…In fact you brought up something similar yourself when you told me I was ‘unflirty’” He flinched at the mentioning of the last word. A hand flew to play with his bangs again but he didn’t hang his head this time, forcing himself to not break his eye contact with her as if signaling that he was definitely listening this time.

“Well, um…I don’t know how to study that subject. What should I do, Ren? I can’t learn romance by myself.”

There, she said it. She forced the question out. 

Maybe romance was all about being able to enjoy empty flirtations with different people until you find the right one you clicked with. Maybe she had to go out of her way to seek other guys out so that she would get over this hopeless crush over the boy who sat across her—

“I’ll be your study partner” he said slowly and deliberately, as if he was trying to make her understand the motivation behind those words.

Her eyes snapped immediately towards him. He couldn’t have meant it, right? Is this one of his attempts to flirt with her? Just done at an inappropriate time?

“Ren, you can’t just—“ she started only to get cut off by Ren himself.

“Look Makoto…I know that you don’t like to flirt and that’s perfectly fine with me regardless of what I had said back then. But you also mentioned that if you wanted to flirt, you would flirt only if there were feelings behind it. That's what I'm trying to do now. I am not flirting just because I can.” The edge that came out in the last sentence unmasked his agitation and she could see that it wasn’t intentional when he swore under his breath. He ran a hand through his bangs and reached under his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose, shielding his eyes from her gaze.

A few moments passed as he stayed in this position and she straightened out the edge of her tunic, knowing that it’s not quite time to say anything yet.

When he finally took his hand away, his fixed her with a look that made it seem like there was silver fire dancing in his eyes. There was no question of the conviction or motivation in that look, leaving her lips dry of the accusations that were threatening to slip out before.

She waited for the feeling of a familiar heat enter her face or the pounding of her heart and her head that seemed to haunt her whenever when they were together, but yet it never came. She knew why but was afraid to voice it out loud. Hadn’t she wished for this to happen for months? To finally have the boy that plagued her thoughts and her heart for the past few months to finally admit that he reciprocated her hidden feelings? The thing is, feelings are messy and truth is, this wasn’t just a simple crush and the boy in question had not been an easy clean cut person to admit to that yes, she liked him too. True, she would have been happy to give into the exhiliration of having her crush be mutual but…the questions that lingered in her head were going to eat away at her and grow into full blown resentment if she left them unsaid. 

So she decided to risk her chance at ever being with him. If he was going to give up on her due to what she was going to ask next, then so be it. 

She was cognizant of the effect of her silence and lack of reaction was having on him. He started to fidget with his bangs as he awaited her response, peering at her behind them with nervous anticipation, his eyes no longer the burning mercury it was before.

She licked her lips as she readied the questions that she was going to deliver. It was do or die time.

"I heard you were dancing with Kasumi at the school festival...it sounded like you had a good time.” 

Ren's eyes widened at this sudden confrontation, his hands flying to clasp his knees, his back standing stick straight. It felt a little like dejavu as it felt like she was back in the student council room, Ren wearing a horrified expression as she replayed the phone recording of Ryuji admitting that they were phantom thieves to him back in June.

“I—I didn’t have anything to do that day and Kasumi kind of forced me to go along with her. What was I supposed to do? Abandon her right there on the dancefloor and make myself look like an asshole?" he defended. His eyes would not meet her own and the way he rubbed his neck at his moment admitted a sense of guilt. Her fingernails dug into her palms in her clenched fists. She knew she didn’t deserve to feel pained from hearing his response but she did. Because he could been a little more firm with Kasumi and prevented the situation altogether. But why would he? Ren owed her nothing.

"You declared your love for Haru at the student sharing session..." she continued. She needed to get this out of her system and couldn’t stop now.

"Come on! The MC was clearly egging her on about the phantom thieves and she clearly needed a distraction." he said exasperatedly, throwing his hands in the air. That was plausible, considering that it did sound like something Ren would say as a distraction. There were more questions that still threatened to spill out but she knew that they both have had enough. It wasn’t his answers that mattered to her but what she needed him to know, to understand, was why she was asking him these questions in the first place. 

They both sat in awkward silence, both tense from the interrogation the she had sprung up on him. 

_‘This is it’._

_'This is when he tells me that I’m not worth it.’_

She could feel the pounding build against her temple and the hot tears threatening to rise out of her eyes. Her hands are shaking now. Here she was saying that she didn’t want to get swept up by her emotions and yet here she was, feeling stupid because she confronted Ren over dumb things because she couldn’t get over her idiotic, selfish feelings. She forced herself to count to ten to avert the waterworks, feeling like she was counting up to not only the ruin of a possible relationship but their entire friendship.

_‘1’_

_‘2’_

_‘3—'_

“I get it now.” she heard him murmur. She slowly lifted her head to look at him, seeing a sorrowful look in his eyes, shoulders slouching into himself and hands tightly gripping his knees. It felt like he truly turned into the facade of the quiet timid high school boy that he frequently wore.

“It looked like I was stringing you along the whole time…”he said as his tone dropping in volume with each word. “I’m sorry for letting you think of me that way.” He stared at his twiddled thumbs as a look of downcast contemplation sat on his face. “Maybe I should’ve been straight with you from the start.” 

He let a few more seconds of silence pass through them. "I like you, Makoto. I like you a lot" he finally let out, staring at her with a look that even those fake glasses couldn't subdue.

This time, she could feel that familiar rush of heat that was evading her before creeping up her neck. Her previous anxiety turning into a different sort of beast beating at her heart because she was so sure of the fact that he was going to run from her after the bullshit she unloaded on him a while back.

“…w-why me, Ren?” she choked out in a hardly audible whisper. She knew he heard it.

He quirked up an eyebrow at her question and laughed, the tense mood dissipating into dust with the bright and baritone sound.

She shot him a glare and he smirked in that stupid way of his that made him look even more handsome as he took her clenching fists and held them in his hands, his warmth permeating her.

“You really want to know?” he said softly, a goofy smile on his lips as he brushed his thumbs against her knuckles, causing her fists to unloosen as she let him cradle her fingers in his palms. This little action of his simultaneously both soothed her raging emotions and cause the heat that had settled in her head to pick up into a light breeze against her being.

“Every time we spent time together, I couldn’t help stare at you as you bit your lip in concentration on either the subject problems or an issue that our team had to face. I couldn’t help but think to myself, god, this girl is adorable. It’s kind of a dumb thing to think back about but in those moments, all I could really think about was you and how cute you looked.”

“But you call a lot of girls cu—“ she interjected and he raised a finger to her lips, effectively silencing her.

“Just. Just let me have this, Makoto. Please.” he pulled his finger away when she looked like she was going to keep her silence.

"Sure, there a lot of cute girls out there but it’s not them that I see sitting against the sunset in Hawaii with the sun reflected in their crimson eyes when I go to sleep at night.” The memory of that not-a-date date they had together caused the breeze of a blush to pick up speed.

“I admit, I teased you so much because I wanted to see you blush. Yes, I did it because I found it fun and amusing but deep inside, I knew I enjoyed it so much because it was an evidence that I had an effect on **you** , who usually brushed off that sort of treatment from anyone else.”

“You’re kind of a hard ass to people who need it but you were also always willing to help them out of the predicament they were in. Ryuji especially does a lot of dumb shit sometimes and you chide him for it but you were always the first one to offer your help if Ann didn’t beat you to the punch. When it came to Futaba, you worked incredibly hard to get her out of her shell and I’m more than grateful for that because she means a lot to me too, in a more familial way.”

He looked down at their intertwined hands. He opened his mouth and closed them again, suddenly unsure of how to continue.

“But you know what, Makoto? I could speak all day about what your qualities are. But since we’re being honest with each other now, maybe that’s all kind of bullshit because that’s not why I fell for you.” he chuckled as he said this as if he was laughing at a private joke that he had with himself, still not meeting her eyes.

She knitted her eyebrows in confusion. This conversation was already kind of a crazy rollercoaster and she felt like he was leading her up the ramp before another dip, one higher than anything that they were talking about before.

“…I hated you at the beginning.” She sputtered at this revelation but she really didn’t have anything to say in retort. She already knew why Ren would have hated her. Ren had long accepted her apology over the situation but she still felt a pang of guilt every time it came up.

“There were a lot of rumors that came around when Kobayakawa posted up that notice with your name on it. At first I agreed with them but by the end of that whole ordeal, I felt like I was being a hypocrite considering that it wasn’t too long ago that the same people were talking about me, too.”

“But after the whole deal with Kaneshiro is done, I had a newfound respect for you. Plus, it felt nice to finally be able to talk about strategies and serious phantom thief stuff with someone who wasn’t my cat.” She couldn’t help but giggle a little at the reference to Morgana.

He let go of her hands this time and she was already missing their warmth, settling with letting them sit on her lap. He laid back and took a sip of his own mocktail as he let his eyes wander into the distance. 

“I don’t really know how it started. I thought I wanted you around more because I valued your opinion and companionship. But then I started wanting you around even when I didn’t need to. And then I thought maybe it was because I was worried about you because you have a tendency to get into reckless and dangerous situations.” he murmured, not masking the frustration tinging his words. 

“I think I had an inkling of the fact that I was starting to get a little crush on you then…because I was starting to flirt with other girls more. I couldn’t grasp that I was starting to lo—like”—he corrected his wording before he blurted out that word since it was too soon for that—"you, you, the advisor to the little band of vigilantes that I’ve somehow gathered. You were too much of a good friend to me and we could only be great partners—in crime. Surely I would still feel this way with other girls too, any other girl, if I just give them a chance." he let out a short, mirthless laugh. “I was really caught up in my own bullshit.”

“Fuck that. I think it made me think about you even more because every time I could see how they reacted around me when I flirted with them, all I could think about was how you would react instead and how much I really wanted to fucking see it again.” 

“Then I couldn’t stop myself from thinking of how to keep you from leaving my side. I started getting you a little more involved with the phantom thief business that I would usually do alone because it was a way to meet up with you. I started scheduling study sessions with you even when I was at the top of my class just so that I could see your cute face again—" she blushed a little more at this comment “—and even with all that, it felt like it still wasn’t enough.” 

He finally looked at her again, this time with a look filled with warmth and adoration that made her see stars and the butterflies in her stomach turn into doves because she knew that _this look was for her_.

“I fell hard, Mako. I fell hard for you. I don’t really know _why_ but I know that I _did_."

After this little speech, Makoto could feel the heat in her head sit at the edge of being a raging typhoon but she was always pretty good about keeping a tight control over the expression of these emotions on her face. It wouldn’t be fair to Ren, after all that he had said when he usually didn’t say much at all, for her to quake into a blithering mess too soon. She took a deep breath to compose herself so she could force out the next few words before she lost herself to the emotional high she kept at bay.

“Well then…if, um…it’s alright with you…let’s start dating, for real.” She did not look at him when she said this in fear of being rejected, which was stupid considering that he already confessed to her, three times if she counted and she definitely did.

“That’s fine with me...” was the simple answer he gave her, not really giving her a hint of what was on his mind through his neutral tone because she refused to look at his goddamned face.

“This is so embarrassing...” she admitted quietly. “I look forward to um, growing our relationship, um…together.”

When she finally mustered the courage to stop hiding behind her bangs and lifted her head to look at him, he had a smile so wide and radiant that it was almost blinding. 

“…Makoto, there’s still something I need to know that you never cleared up. I’ve kind of laid it bare for you just now so I don’t think that what I’m going to ask of you would be too much”. His playful tone was starting to scare her at the hint of what he was going to say next. 

“…huh?” 

“…you like me back too right? Clearly you wouldn’t offer getting into a relationship if you didn’t,” he raised one eyebrow at her.

Her blush was reaching the tips of her ears now, the ferocious typhoon already reaching category five and consuming her entire being, causing her to stutter and stumble in her seat. She could no longer form coherent words or even coherent thoughts.

He laughed and caught her mid-stumble, holding her tightly in his arms, knowing that this reaction was enough of an answer for him. When he finally stopped laughing and she finally mustered the courage to look up at him, she briefly caught a glimpse of a gentle smile playing on his lips, only to lose sight of it once again as he leaned in.

And then her whole world exploded into fireworks.

* * *

Shido had his heart changed and was on his way to being persecuted by sis. Yaldabaoth was dead. It was Christmas Eve.

And amazingly, she and Ren managed to procure a christmas cake at the very last minute.

The cake was already sitting upon the table that he set up in front of the sofa, a third of it missing and neatly halved and plated onto two separate plates sitting on its side. Ren’s was already almost finished but hers a little less so because she hardly had sweets on her own and she wanted to savour the taste and the glee of this small pre-Christmas celebration that she was having with Ren, and just only Ren. Another smaller box sat on the table, unwrapped, open and empty.

Ren was holding the content of the box in his palms, testing the weight and inspecting the configurations of its watch face with a boyish enthusiasm, making a smile tug at the corner of her lips seeing him so amused with her gift.

“I have to say, um…my life’s a lot more unpredictable since I met you.” she said earnestly, thinking back on what had happened in the past couple of months with the phantom thieves and with them being…together. He put the wristwatch down back into its box, paying attention to what she had to say.

“But we’ve got through everything so far. And it’s made me realize…I wouldn’t want it any other way.” 

"I thought you might like this watch. Just in case, ah…we lose track of time together.” she fought hard to keep her blush down as she let out the second sentence.

He raised his eyebrow at this and a knowing half-smirk formed on his lips.

He was definitely going to ask her what exactly they were doing together to not notice time passing or quip about that whatever they were doing together, he wasn’t going to be wearing a watch to begin with. She knew him long enough to know that these words were at the tip of his tongue.

“I’ll take good care of it,” was all he said, holding himself back before he got punched in the side, again.

“It’s really nothing fancy, I’m glad you like it,” she felt herself bashfully smile as she brushed away her hair. She glanced at him, noticing that there was something about his face that just looked off somehow.

Her eyes focused on the dollop of cream from the cake at the tip of his nose. 

“Oh wait, don’t move Ren.” 

He quizzically looked at her. She didn’t want to rush getting it off him as he looked adorable and so unlike the cool and stoic exterior he often wore with other people.

She might have been staring a little too long as he started to look away from her, getting a little flustered. It made her a little happy that the tables had turned now with him getting bashful around her and she felt like she needed to one-up her own little achievement. With a finger, she scooped up the piece of cream off his nose and slowly put it into her mouth, making a show of licking her finger in the process. She made sure that he caught sight of what she had done.

“You had some cream on your nose. How’d that even get there” she said innocently, amused.

The light flush that had bloomed on his face turned a tad darker as he forced his eyes away from her gaze and rubbed the back of his neck to hide the deepened blush.

_‘Huh, this must be why he enjoys teasing me so much.’_ she thought to herself, her heart fluttering in delight. Indeed, ever since they got together, Ren had been incorrigible in his flirting with her.

“Makoto, what happened to you? Who replaced my girlfriend with this vixen in front of me?” he teased back, finally getting his emotions back in check. The words must have tumbled out a little huskier than he expected them to as he quickly coughed at the end.

“Well, I learn from the best.” she replied, smirking back at him. She felt a hand sneakily lay on her thigh.

“Really now?” he murmured as he let his fingers graze against her inner thigh, causing the thoughts in her head to swim and a heat started to warm her entire being.

This conversation was starting to devolve into a familiar tango they danced and she knew it but she wanted to enjoy the romantic mood of Christmas a little more, but not like that, not yet, anyway.

She swatted his hand away and he pouted as he made a show of rubbing his _injured_ hand. She gave out an honest-to-god giggle at this expression, knowing that she was probably the only one who gets to see it and that little fact made her so happy.

“I usually don’t laugh this much on Christmas.” she said with a happy sigh, swiping away the tears that formed in her eyes.

“But I guess it’s not just the holidays…meeting you helped me see so much humor, even excitement in the most trivial things…you helped me find so many new experiences beyond the life I’d known.”

“Thank you…for spending Christmas with me. And for loving me,” she said softly, feeling almost embarrassed to admit to herself, that yes, Ren did love her.

Ren looked at her with a gentle adoration, a smile adorning his lips. “I always will,” he whispered into her ear as he pulled her close. As she sneaked a peek up at him, she caught a faint tinge of pink on the tip of his ears and she smiled as she buried her face into his neck.

A flicker of white entered her periphery. She directed her eyes towards the attic windows, seeing that the first snowfall for Tokyo had begun to appear.

“Oh look, Ren!” she broke out of his embrace, grabbing his hand and pulling him along to sit at the edge of his makeshift bed, facing out to look at the view.

“It’s so beautiful…The snow must have picked up after we got back. Coming to Leblanc really was the smart move. Now we get to enjoy the view!” she beamed as she looked up at him beside her, only to catch that he wasn’t looking at the snowfall outside at all but his eyes were solely focused on her, a goofy smile on his lips.

“I didn’t know I could be this happy. It almost doesn’t feel real.” She sighed as she sunk into him and he wrapped a shoulder around her, bringing her closer to him. “It is, though” he murmured into her hair.

They spent a couple more moments in silence as they watched the snow in each others arms.

“It’s getting pretty bad out there. This much snow is bound to stop the train schedules.” she muttered to herself as she noticed the change in the rate the snow was falling at. A stray hand started to trace lazy circles on her arm. 

“Hope you don’t mind, but…I’ll be staying a little longer” she hummed lazily into Ren’s neck. 

He leaned down into her ear and spoke in a husky whisper, “Didn’t you just say that there wouldn’t be any trains left. You’re definitely not going home tonight.”

An intense blush shot up her face at the obvious insinuation and she pulled away abruptly and smacked him in the shoulder, Ren yelping in response. But before he could give a witty comeback in retaliation, she gripped his collar and silenced him with her lips as she closed the distance between them.

*******

Ren hovered above her, looking a little flushed and his hair in an even wilder disarray than it usually is, his eyes glinting with a hungry look that she knew he only had for her in moments like this, amplified by the light reflecting in the snow coating the streets and buildings of Yongen-Jaya outside.

“Hey Ren,” she whispered as she reached out to caress his cheek. “Mhm?” he sighed into it and placed a few light kisses into her palm, each caress of his lips stoking the flame burning in her heart and in her loins. 

“If you could grade me on a test of love now…do you still grade me as ‘Unflirty’?” she asked playfully. His eyebrows knit together as he sulked at her, causing her to giggle.

“Why do you always remind me of that.” he whined as he lowered himself back towards her, leaving only a centimeter between their lips and making her pout in anticipation.

“I would give you…an A+” he whispered with a smirk before he reduced that centimeter to nothing.  


**Author's Note:**

> You made it to the end! Huzzah!
> 
> I had this idea that would not leave my head when I played Royal and thought that I could a make an attempt at turning it into a fic. I have more ideas on how this could be a little more fleshed out but would rather not let it get too long or turn into a multi-chapter fic since it is my first.
> 
> As mentioned, this is my first fic so forgive me if my formatting is absolute shit, especially when it comes to the conversations. Obviously it's also not beta-ed but I tried my darnest to proofread it myself. I also don't have any writer friends and I would get embarrassed to send this to anyone I know IRL so uh forgive me if I have glaring mistakes. I also hardly write at all and English is not my first language (it's decent but not like, absolutely 0 grammar issues and some sayings might sound out of place). 
> 
> I was thinking of making an accompanying fic for Rens POV if it seems like this fic gets a little bit of interest (not like 1-to-1 with this fic since I don't want to rehash conversations but what they recount will essentially turn into fleshed out events). Idk. 
> 
> Comments are definitely appreciated because this will be the only place I can get constructive criticism anyway so comment away!


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